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Landmark building gets new owner

September 26, 2006
Landmark building gets new owner. Check it out:
(High Point Enterprise (NC) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Sep. 26--HIGH POINT -- High Point's unofficial symbol, often called The World's Largest Bureau, Monday was purchased by a woman who values its history and wants to preserve it.



"I don't know what I'm going to try to do with it," Pam Stern said. "I'm just trying to save the building." Stern owns Move It! Makeovers, a business to decorate empty homes for use in the real estate market.

Although the 3,000-square-foot structure looks like a chest of drawers, it contains office space and a basement.

Stern noticed about six months ago that the building at 508 N. Hamilton St. was for sale.

"I saw it and thought, this is crazy. It should be preserved. I couldn't believe the city of High Point didn't buy it."

Mayor Becky Smothers said she's delighted that a private entrepreneur purchased the building, which most recently was designed by late architect Sid Lenger to look like a large chest of drawers, with two socks hanging from the representation of the middle drawer.

"I think the fact that she bought it is a perfect indication of why the city didn't buy it," Smothers said. "There is certainly recognition of its value in the private sector."

The building most recently was owned and used by the Jaycees, and before that it was the home of the High Point Chamber of Commerce.

The building is in disrepair, Stern said, and she will renovate it for any tenant who wants to rent it. If a tenant can't be found, she'll renovate it for her use, perhaps to sell market samples.

Negotiations to purchase the building took longer than expected, and Stern planned to have more time to make it available for rental during October's furniture market. "I'm going to have to see how fast we can pull this off. If I can get it rented by market, I can definitely pat myself on the back," she said.

Built in 1926, the building was located in Tate Park at N. Main Street and Church Avenue, currently a parking lot for First Baptist Church. The building was relocated in 1951 to its current location and was used as home of the High Point Jaycees. It was purchased in 1952 by the High Point Jaycees for use as local/state Jaycees headquarters.

The original white frame building is 32 feet high, 27 feet wide and 14 feet deep. The front was remodeled in the mid-1990s.

To see more of the High Point Enterprise, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.hpe.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, High Point Enterprise, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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